Investors invest their money with the hope to have returns that could improve their welfare in future. Dividend is one of those expectations that investors hope to get as a result of their investment. A Company pays dividend in order to encourage further investment for growth. However, the degree and extent by which dividend is made depend on the organization management decision. There has been contradicting arguments on firms dividend payout ratio such as rightist, leftist and the middle of the road hypothesis on whether firms should pay dividend or not. Hence there has not been any conclusive study on the factors that determine the dividend growth pattern of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria. It is this perceived gap that informs the empirical analysis of growth pattern of dividend payout of quoted banks in Nigeria. The study relies majorly on secondary data sourced from the financial report of seven (7) quoted banks in the Nigeria Stock Exchange. It was found that all the explanatory variables (inflation, share price and earnings per share) have significant impact on dividend payout. The study recommends that deposit money banks in Nigeria should improve on their performance so as to increase earnings which will go a long way in determining the Dividend Payout Pattern of their banks while government should makes both investment and production environment suitable for banks to produce locally and avoid much importation to control inflation.
Keywords: Banks’, Dividend Payout Pattern, Inflation, Investment, Nigeria
